HOW TO PRONOUNCE
cicada
/səˈkeɪdə/
Press play to hear how to pronounce cicada.
American Pronunciation Guide · 0:33
Watch on YouTube ↗
Watch on YouTube ↗
LISTEN FOR THIS
Stress “ca,” with the sound of “kay.”
Use three syllables, beginning with s and a light vowel. The second c is a hard k before the strong long a, followed by d and an unstressed uh.
3 syllables · Stress on syllable 2
TRY SAYING
“A cicada called from the tree.”
APG practice sentence · CC BY-SA 4.0
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗What does cicada mean?
noun
- Any of several insects in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with small eyes wide apart on the head and transparent well-veined wings.
- The periodical cicada.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/səˈkeɪdə/
Pronunciation used in the listening tip.
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
'Tis the concert of the Cicada, whose bellies sway and rustle with increasing frenzy as the temperature rises.
The singing kettle, as it boils over the brazier, sounds like some cicada pouring forth his woes to departing summer.
More book examples (3)
Like all cicada noises it did not usurp the sound world, but constituted itself an underlying basis, so to speak.
Thus the Cicada is forced to labour for long gloomy years in the darkness before it can emerge from the soil.
Musical phrases drove each other rapidly through her mind, and the song of the cicada was now too long and too sharp.